deluge

From Middle English deluge, from Old French deluge, alteration of earlier deluvie, from Latin dīluvium, from lavō (“wash”)

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛl.juːdʒ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛl.ju(d)ʒ/, /dəˈlu(d)ʒ/

• Audio (US)

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deluge (plural deluges)

1. A great flood or rain.

   The deluge continued for hours, drenching the land and slowing traffic to a halt.

2. An overwhelming amount of something; anything that overwhelms or causes great destruction.

   The rock concert was a deluge of sound.

   • Milton

     A fiery deluge fed / With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed.

   • Lowell

     The little bird sits at his door in the sun, / Atilt like a blossom among the leaves, / And lets his illumined being o'errun / With the deluge of summer it receives.

3. (Military engineering) A damage control system on navy warships which is activated by excessive temperature within the Vertical Launching System.
   • NAVEDTRA 14324A

     In the event of a restrained firing or canister overtemperature condition, the deluge system sprays cooling water within the canister until the overtemperature condition no longer exists.

deluge (third-person singular simple present deluges, present participle deluging, simple past and past participle deluged)

1. (transitive) To flood with water.

   Some areas were deluged with a month's worth of rain in 24 hours.

2. (transitive) To overwhelm.

   After the announcement, they were deluged with requests for more information.

• 1996, T.F. Hoad, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Etymology, Oxford University Press, →ISBN

• inundate

• diluge

From Old French deluge, from Latin dīluvium.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɛːliu̯dʒ(ə)/

deluge (Late Middle English)

1. A deluge; a massive flooding or raining.
2. (rare, figuratively) Any cataclysmic or catastrophic event.

• English: deluge

• “dēlūǧe (n.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-08-12.

From Latin dīluvium.

deluge m (oblique plural deluges, nominative singular deluges, nominative plural deluge)

1. large flood

• French: déluge
• → Middle English: deluge
  • English: deluge